Absolutist Perspective - Deviance - Lecture Slides, Slides of Sociology of Deviance

Download Absolutist Perspective - Deviance - Lecture Slides and more Slides Sociology of Deviance in PDF only on Docsity! Il. The Absolutist Perspective on Defining Deviance  According to the sin-based model society is founded on consensus with most people agreeing about right & wrong  Example: 9-11 terrorists considered deranged but not evil (Said) Docsity.com  Globalization has increased societies based on shared culture rather than on narrow calculations of individual self-interest  A commitment to common moral order more difficult within a culture of strong individualism Docsity.com ll. Moral Boundaries Docsity.com  Testing the boundaries of established norms can be positive as well as negative  Type of alienation occurs when social regulators begin to splinter, and controlling moral authority of society no longer effective (T.S. Eliot) Docsity.com  Example  An individual who does not recognize an extramarital affair as sinful but sees himself or herself as afflicted with a mental illness  The loosening of moral codes of conduct on college campuses Docsity.com  Interviews with over 200 middle-class people  Results: people unified by their increasing reluctance to judge the behavior of others  Wolfe identified this as “Eleventh Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Judge”  Originally predicted 30 years ago by Rieff, who stated that “psychological man” was replacing “Christian man,” where former rejected idea of sin and need for salvation Docsity.com IV. Moral Consensus Docsity.com Social Power: Conflict Theory of Crime Quinney Il. The Official Definition of Crime  Crime is a legal definition created by the agents of the dominant class in power  Crime is not inherent in behavior but a judgment made by some about others  The greater the number of definitions of crime formulated and applied, the greater the amount of crime Docsity.com lll. Applying Definitions of Crime  Definitions of crime are applied by the class that has the power to shape the enforcement and administration of criminal law  Criminal law is not applied directly by those in power, but its enforcement is delegated to legal agents;  This results in some variation in how definitions will be applied  Application of the law is also affected by communities’ expectations of law enforcement and administration Docsity.com IV. How Behavior Patterns Develop in Relation to Definitions of Crime  An ideology of crime is constructed and diffused by the dominant class to secure its hegemony  The ideas about crime held by the dominant class are incorporated into the social views of crime and criminals Docsity.com Vi. Constructing the Social Reality of Crime  The social reality of crime is constructed by:  the formulation and application of definitions of crime  the development of behavior patterns in relation to these definitions  the construction of an ideology of crime Docsity.com